Mazda MPV Head Gasket

Tips to Handle the Common Problems of Your Mazda MPV Head Gasket

Like all components, your Mazda MPV head gasket will wear out one day. That's why it's important that you're prepared anytime your head gasket fails. To help you in dealing with some of its usual problems, here are some useful troubleshooting tips:

Leaking coolant

If you find puddles of coolant on your garage or on the parking space, immediately check your head gasket because it may have already blown. A damaged head gasket usually leaks coolant and leave puddles of it on your garage or on the parking space. Now, this leakage isn't only attributed to the head gasket as other components can also be sources of the leak. However, if you find coolant leakage on your car and experience frequent overheating, you can bet that your head gasket is to be blamed. But if you want to be sure, you can buy an ultraviolet dye test kit from any auto supply store and use it to find the real source of the leak. Should the head gasket be proven guilty, don't think twice in replacing it with a new one.

Losing compression

You may experience compression loss once a cylinder fails to function properly after your head gasket wears out. This may also result to air leaking from the engine, hissing or audible sounds, and loss of power. Once your cylinder loses compression, your engine will surely run inefficiently and will have problems starting up. Should you suspect your car to have a blown head gasket and a malfunctioning cylinder, manually check the compression using a compression gauge. Just make sure that you remove all spark plugs and disable the ignition coil before you do the test.

Rusted surface

Your head gasket can have rust spots on its surface. If left unattended, this can spread out and cover the entire surface of the component. You wouldn't want this to happen because it may affect the performance of your head gasket and cause other problems. So if you happen to find rust starting to form on the surface, you have to immediately remove them using an abrasive pad and rust remover. However, make sure to just lightly scrub the surface to avoid damaging it.

Mazda MPV Head Gasket Available Years

Cleaning the surface of your head gasket may look easy, but it's actually quite difficult. It requires patience, skills, and knowledge to make the head gasket shiny and clean without damaging it. To help you achieve this, here are simple and useful cleaning tips:

Gently sand the surface.

You can use a hard-back body board with 80- to 100-grit sandpaper to remove dirt and stains that have accumulated on the surface of your head gasket. This will give you bigger coverage for easier and faster sanding, and it will show you any low spot on the surface. Also, using the board will not leave your head gasket surface uneven unlike if you use other devices. If you choose to do this option, however, you have to make sure that you put only moderate pressure over the gasket and keep in mind to sand in long steady strokes. Remember, you just want to leave the surface shiny and clean, not scratched and uneven.

Try the wire brush drill attachment.

If you want another option in removing dirt and grime on your head gasket surface, you can try using the wire brush attachment for your drill. Keep in mind, though, that you must not place the wire brush too close to the surface to avoid scratching it; just let the bristles lightly scrub it. Also, be ready to clean up dirt everywhere as debris can be catapulted all over the place once the drill rotates. If you're fine with the idea of doing a cleanup after, then, by all means, try this option.

Get ready to scrape.

You may also use plastic scrapers or normal razors to get rid of the unwanted particles on the surface of your head gasket. Just make sure that you spray the component first with gasket remover to help you clean it easily. If you're scraping, however, remember to do it gently and lightly because you wouldn't want to be the one damaging your component.

Use chemicals.

Instead of the gasket remover, you can use acetone or paint thinner to clean the surface. Just remember to wear protective gears like gloves, so your hands won't get damaged by these chemicals.